Animals follow their instinct to clean wounds on their bodies by licking with their tongues. In a similar manner, animals instinctively want to scratch their head with their extremities (paws), when an injury or an itch occurs in the head region. This licking of wounds or scratching may be effectively prevented by a recovery collar which is used, in particular, after veterinary operations.
A recovery collar known from the prior art is shown in FIG. 2. It consists substantially of a rigid, tubular object 4 which is frequently made from plastics and is placed around the neck of the animal. The tubular object 4 extends in this case from a plane 3 in the transition region between the head 2 and the neck of the animal as far as a plane 5 in the transition region between the neck and the body of the animal. As a result, the position of the head 2 is fixed and the animal is prevented from being able to move the neck in the direction of the body. Said known recovery collar thus protects wounds on the body from being licked, but not an injury in the head region from being scratched. The natural freedom of movement of the animal is considerably restricted by said known recovery collar. Conventional animal activities such as lowering or turning the head to sense smells from the surrounding area (for example from the ground) may, therefore, only be carried out in a very restricted manner. The animal may no longer be able to detect its environment in a manner which is conventional for animals. Turning the head for sleeping is also only possible in a very restricted manner. Frequently, the animal constantly attempts to free itself from the recovery collar.
A further recovery collar known from the prior art is sketched in FIG. 3, Said recovery collar consists of a hard plastics cone 8. The end of the hard plastics cone 8 with a smaller diameter is fastened to a collar 7 on the neck of the animal. The hard plastics cone 8 widens towards the tip of the head of the animal, so that the head of the animal is located in the hard plastics cone. A drawback with this known recovery collar is that the natural orientation capacity of the animal is considerably reduced. Most animals orientate themselves when moving in their surroundings by the sensory hairs on the nose and by visual detection of their surroundings, for example a footpath. The detection of visible events is carried out by turning the head, the viewing angle being oriented to the front relative to the head. These types of orientation are, however, prevented with the known recovery collar as said recovery collar protrudes laterally substantially beyond the head of the animal. As a result of this artificial widening, the animal is able to use its natural orientation, but easily strikes against lateral obstacles with the hard plastics cone, is able to damage said obstacles or become hooked with the hard plastics cone on objects in the surrounding area, so that sometimes it is not able to free itself on its own. The freedom of movement of the animal is also restricted, which leads to the aforementioned drawbacks. In particular, only restricted food intake is possible, as the front overhang of the hard plastics cone prevents the animal from being able to reach with its nose into a feeding bowl.
A further recovery collar is known from the utility model DE 202 03 353 U1, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference. Said recovery collar consists of a disk-shaped round body comprising an opening through which the neck of the animal is guided. The base body consists of a flexible material and is placed between the head and the body of the animal, when an attempt is made at licking. As a result of said known recovery collar, the freedom of movement and orientability of the animal is substantially less restricted than by the aforementioned recovery collar. A drawback with said recovery collar is that the diameter of the opening has to be adapted to the diameter of the neck relatively accurately, so that the recovery collar rests with a precision fit on the neck and is not able to be removed by the animal. This has the result that an individual recovery collar has to be made substantially for each neck diameter.
Proceeding therefrom, it is the object of the invention to provide an improved recovery collar which has a high degree of wearing comfort and may be universally used.